Saturday, September 17, 2011

HOW TO BECOME A POLITICIAN

I get discouraged when I read the headlines each morning and learn what the baboons who are supposedly leading this great country to salvation have been up to on the many fronts of our “uncivil war”. We, the people are losing this war, there is no doubt about that. But, now and again, levity comes in my email and instead of ranting, as I’m want to do, I thought I’d reprint this illuminating answer to a question posed to a master politician. It comes at a time when my brother is running for congress, so I have to laugh as I present this piece from the Texas Archives. Don’t know who dug it up but I thank her/him.

In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr. a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. Here is his answer:

“If you mean whiskey, the devils brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.” “However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables him to magnify his joy, and to forget life’s great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it. This is my position and as always, I refuse to compromise on matters of principal.”